Blues Brother Tie

Composers / Writers: Cora B. Ahrens

Cora B. Ahrens was a teacher, lecturer, and pianist. Born in Stratford, Ontario on January 23, 1891. Her teachers included Viggo Kihl at the TCM. With Leon Vera and Avram Pratz she played in a trio which accompanied silent movies at Stratford's Theatre Albert. During the 1930s she was one of the first itinerant rural school music teachers and taught throughout Perth County, Ont. A co-founder in 1926 with W.B. Rothwell and Margaret Stevenson Grant of the Perth County Music Teachers' Federation (see Stratford), Ahrens also served as secretary, and president of ORMTA. She lectured in pedagogy at the University of Western Ontario, the University of Toronto, and McGill University, conducted summer workshops in piano pedagogy in most major Canadian cities, and taught privately in Stratford. Ms. Ahrens died in Stratford on August 26, 1964.*Excerpted fromThe Encyclopedia of Music in Canada